Darkwing Posted June 15, 2014 Posted June 15, 2014 Hey all! I've been progressively trying to get to the point of being able to do freelance work to some extent (I even made a website!) but I still feel like there is much to learn before I'm ready. Certain concepts I've gotten pretty solid (with much help from you folks!) but there's always more to be learned! Anyways, I was wondering what the top 5 books are that you might recommend for doing CG work. It can be ranging from any topic from lighting, to animating, to modeling etc. Just what are the top 5 books you think anyone like myself should read when doing this sort of work? Thanks! Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted June 15, 2014 Hash Fellow Posted June 15, 2014 If you're wanting to animate characters, "The Animators Survival Kit" is solid information about posing, timing, keyframes and workflow. It has zero information about using a computer but if you can pose and keyframe bones it's really all the same. For CG lighting I recommend Jeremy Birn's "Digital Lighting and Rendering". I have a thread on the forum that translates its terms to A:M terms. ILM's "The Art of Special Effects" is about old-school 1980's pre-computer VFX but most of those ideas transfer to modern tools. Used copies are cheap. The have a follow up about their digital era but I haven't seen it. Quote
itsjustme Posted June 15, 2014 Posted June 15, 2014 Adding to Robert's list: Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right Someone else could probably recommend a good character design book...I've read several and have learned things from each, but I can't call them "must have". Quote
Darkwing Posted June 15, 2014 Author Posted June 15, 2014 Thanks guys! Those are all exactly the type of things I was looking for! I figured it was high time to start learning some of the more conceptual aspects to CG work. Payday is Tuesday so I think I'll order a book then, perhaps Digital Lighting as I've been taking an increasingly higher interest in lighting these days. Feel free to suggest more books too, I only said 5 just to make you guys think about it for a few minutes Hopefully in time it'll be able to be more than 5 books that I order haha Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted June 15, 2014 Hash Fellow Posted June 15, 2014 Adding to Robert's list: Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right Someone else could probably recommend a good character design book...I've read several and have learned things from each, but I can't call them "must have". I like that one too. In the edition i have there is actually some A:M coverage but he was using an early version of A:M that didn't have CP weighting so it was abit obsolete inthat regard. However, even without any A:M coverage his advice on what parts of the face need to move and his approach to doing lip-sync work are worthwhile. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted June 15, 2014 Hash Fellow Posted June 15, 2014 My thread for Birn's book Quote
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